Am I the onnly one who has worked out that the new road tax system is a complete con?

kimmyginger

I bought my car in March 2006 when car tax banding was based on engine size. We share one estate car between two of us, we have two children and at the time had pushchairs and such like to contend with. Then the government decided to move the goal posts and base the charges on cars from 2001 to be made on emissions.

Now, I don't know about you, but when purchasing a car I figure in the costs of car tax, etc. to amke sure Im not going to struggle too much. Originally I was paying about £180 per year for car tax, now its more like £290.

I'm no rocket scientist but even I can see that this is a case of positive descimination. Now you have to be able to afford a new car to be able to get the lower rate of £35 per year so hardly fair is it??? Plus wouldn't it have been advisable to change the banding on cars from the date the changes took effect.

I have looked into it, and a family could have 2 cars with emissions at the lower rate and only pay £70 per year total, whereas someone in our position can have one car, pay £290 road tax and have a lower set of emissions than these two cars combined. Plus, I there will be less cars on the road etc.

Am I barking up the wrong tree??? Or does anyone agree with me???:D

bigjl

How can you factor in all costs when most motoring costs are variable.

Fuel costs will only tend to increase year on year.

Insurance will only ever go one way, up.

I bought a brand new Subaru and it had cheap roadtax due to lowish emissions, it was the single cam model, it increased every year pretty much

This is called life.

Cat2011

My 7 year old car is £35/year.

Rolandtheroadie

I'm sure I paid roughly the same for a 1992 3.9 litre V8 range rover as a workmate did for his 03 plate 1.6 Zafira.

Perfectly fair.

bluenoseam

It's also not as if the government hadn't indicated far enough in advance they were going to do it based on emissions, it had been spoken about for years. Truth is you can pick up cheap £30 a year road tax cars which are going to be much more economical than the car you're currently driving, they're not making a fast buck out of YOU, they're doing it to discourage the use of cars which far outweigh the situation they exist in. Case in point would be my big sister, she thinks "oh i have 2 toddlers, i need a big car" as a result she drives a 7 seater, instead she could easilly drive a Focus but because of her mindset she won't consider anything smaller - the road tax system is in place to discourage stupidity like hers (and i've told her she's a dumb*ss many a time) and encourage tailoring your vehicle to your need.

alanrowell

Cat2011 wrote: »

My 7 year old car is £35/year.

So is mine

thenudeone

It's deliberate policy to put a little discouragement to those people who think a bigger car makes them seem like a bigger person, and who thinks that they are entitled to put three times as much pollution as average into the atmosphere. Nothing wrong with that IMO.

My family has 6 people so we have a 7-year old MPV and a 6-your old mini-MPV. Both are reasonably powerful with diesel engines. One costs £190 and the other £165. If yours is around £290 might I suggest that your car is a bit of a gas-guzzler?

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_10012524

attila_

£290 a year means you have a guzzler. The tax is to incentivise public to to use lower carbon emitting vehicles: not a discrimination against gas guzzlers.

Discrimination would mean if the government picked only on a certain make of car for no apparent reason....like for example if they punished bmw drivers just because they drive bmws...hold on, there's a thought.

Bottom line is gov is keen for us to be less dependant on foreign oil and need to meet legally binding climate targets....motorists have to pay unfortunately.

eilidh_s

I have a 2 year old hilux, it is £290 and yes it is a gas guzzler. Could your estate car in fact be a 4x4?

DCFC79

You do have the option of chnaging the car for a smaller 1 or 2 smaller cars

forgotmyname

I thought the emissions based tax groups came out before 2006? I swapped cars in early 2006 from a pre 2001 car to a
post 2001 car.

The tax was about £20 more. I could have looked for a car that was 3 months older but for £20 it was not worth it.


You should swap to an ECO green car with zero tax. Nice 1972 V8 Range Rover fits the bill. Insurance is a bit pricey
though. Gone upto £110 fully comp agreed value. Eeeeeh i remember when it was £90.
12mpg soon makes up for that though.